As wireless devices, such as cellular telephones, have become more integrated, proper hardware partitioning becomes increasingly important. Generally, when designing a radio, a designer will partition the radio into functional and hardware blocks. For example, a typical radio may be partitioned as follows. A transceiver is formed on an integrated circuit (IC), and is mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB). A power amplifier is also formed on an integrated circuit, which is mounted on the same PCB. An antenna is mounted somewhere on the radio and is connected to the power amplifier and the transceiver for transmitting and receiving signals.
To improve a radio design, or to move to a higher level of integration, the radio partitioning may be modified. For example, various discrete components may be integrated into one of the integrated circuits. In another example, where a design includes multiple PCBs, modules, or ICs, the design could be modified by moving one or more components from one PCB to another, and perhaps eliminating a PCB, module, or IC.
Typically, when evaluating where to partition a radio, the antenna is rarely considered. The antenna may play an important role in determining the overall radio performance, but the performance and integration of an antenna into a system is commonly not considered until the final stages of design.